Normal Difficulty is broken but so is this whole game

[RebelRouser]

I'm at the part where Perez comes back and the difficulty has skyrocketed in a unreasonable manner. It's the sheer volume of mechs aswell as their class that's completely overwhelming and feels more suited for Hard. You need a balancing patch badly it's always the case when the game feels like this on normal. I was playing normal first so that I can play the game again after finishing it on Hard but ♥♥♥♥ that at this point.

I've had to save scum my ass off literally ditching early if I take too much damage and instead of enjoying the game now I'm finding myself just pushing through it so I can "get the horrible experience over with". There's no brains to these missions at this point it's just a face-smash of assault mechs. I can't pick the mechs I want to use tactically (like lights and mediums, even heavies now) cause they get crushed 1/4 through the mission. Some missions I try to take a lore-friendly drop lance and I get wiped out fast.

Never enough repair bays AND they are 1 uses even though it looks like they can be tweaked to have more. This doesn't feel like it was intended it feels like someone balancing the mission difficulty called it in.

I've squeezed battlegrid tactics like a lemon positioning my lancemates pre-engagement in positions based on their role but every time I do this I suffer in comparison cause enemies seem to focus down a priorty target every fight. Whoever gets spotted first in the lance gets ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by that wave. I do better just creating a deathball every time and ignoring my lancemates entirely.

It was doing okay until now which made it's flaws glaring. It's brains completely fell out once the tonnage limit passed 400. I was actually hoping for a radar stealth mission or something to utilize smaller classes of mechs, set up ambushes or even protect some convoys but all it is is a gauntlet of mindless slugfests, just like MW5.

[Wrayday]

To be 100%

Put the game on easy and one and done it.
No custom character.
No NG+
God Awful interface with pointless submenu's.
No actual mission variety.
Terrible VA's.

There is no reason to suffer long missions looking for mud puddles to stand in while your AI teammates get smoked.
Simpods .... replay screw you over by forcing you to play stock and under tonnage so they are lame.

[Player 9000]

I beat it on normal, had to replayy a few missions.

Biggest tips, pick weapons you want to max researxh and use the most.

I mostly upgraded lrms and er lasers so i had to make loadouts making use of those weapons for my play through. Also max out evasion and naomis lrms grroup sprread.

Its not a rpg where yyou can 100% everything in one play through. Interesting design choice actually.

I feel like dlc will pick up on a campaign playthough stats for this reason.

Other dlcs will maybe do a invasion from another clan or theyll add in a map mode like mercs eventuallly

[Lander1]

I found the same thing.. went back to the sim pod and got gud (half of the Pilot's XP is locked behind completing the sim pod challenges).. max the evasion first.

[Geeves]

Beat the game and the only time I lost lancemates was on the final mission where I forgot I told my squad to stand guard and it took me a minute to realize I was alone focusing down 5 assault mechs. Still didn't lose the mission.

So no, if I can make boneheaded mistakes like that and still finish, normal difficulty is not "broken".

And where do you get the idea that the simpod missions "force" you to take stock mechs and go undertonnage? Its a *goal* not a requirement.

I think maybe you do not understand the game.

[RebelRouser]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wrayday:

To be 100%

Put the game on easy and one and done it.
No custom character.
No NG+
God Awful interface with pointless submenu's.
No actual mission variety.
Terrible VA's.

There is no reason to suffer long missions looking for mud puddles to stand in while your AI teammates get smoked.
Simpods .... replay screw you over by forcing you to play stock and under tonnage so they are lame.

Oh god I haven't even touched Sim Pods once.

[RebelRouser]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Player 9000:

I beat it on normal, had to replayy a few missions.

Biggest tips, pick weapons you want to max researxh and use the most.

I mostly upgraded lrms and er lasers so i had to make loadouts making use of those weapons for my play through. Also max out evasion and naomis lrms grroup sprread.

Its not a rpg where yyou can 100% everything in one play through. Interesting design choice actually.

I feel like dlc will pick up on a campaign playthough stats for this reason.

Other dlcs will maybe do a invasion from another clan or theyll add in a map mode like mercs eventuallly

Yeah it is a good ground platform for adding in the campaigns of the other clans. I'm especially looking forward to Clan Wolf. I can tell that these later missions need alot of patching because there's places where there are repair bays that just don't seem to deploy.

[Kyuirah]

you HAVE to use a full lance of assaults , even if you like Mad Cat or Dog more. Also LRMs are worthless. Give the AI Lasers or PPCs. Especially PPCs , they land the most wild headshots with those.

[Bosmang]

You need to learn how to build mechs for durability & sustained DPS. This is why laser boats are effective & the AI loves them.

This game is won/lost in the mechlab.

[Geeves]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Kyuirah:

you HAVE to use a full lance of assaults , even if you like Mad Cat or Dog more. Also LRMs are worthless. Give the AI Lasers or PPCs. Especially PPCs , they land the most wild headshots with those.

Naomi with an LRM boat and her specialization for clustering deletes mechs. Just absolutely deletes them. It's the only reason I keep her in a Warhawk over a Dire Wolf.

Anyone else, yes do not bother.

[Daniel Chmielewski]

Just finished game on hard and it was so easy and boring. AI is so stupid, just lure them to you and take out one by one.

[Alpha2518]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wrayday:

To be 100%

Put the game on easy and one and done it.
No custom character.
No NG+
God Awful interface with pointless submenu's.
No actual mission variety.
Terrible VA's.

There is no reason to suffer long missions looking for mud puddles to stand in while your AI teammates get smoked.
Simpods .... replay screw you over by forcing you to play stock and under tonnage so they are lame.

The NG+ is coming with the first big update. Someone posted here in the forums that Bullock posted that on twitter.

[RebelRouser]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Daniel Chmielewski:

Just finished game on hard and it was so easy and boring. AI is so stupid, just lure them to you and take out one by one.

Yeah I was gonna play it first on hard but decided normal. It doesn't feel like normal at all though and this isn't the first time I've played a game where they mixed up the scripting for difficulty settings without knowing it.

[The Jade Shadow]

I have been playing on expert and it has been fun with no issues of losing mechs. I think AI issues are tricky to resolve in games because you risk making the AI too human like but responding at a speed faster then a human can respond, that would put a normal person at a disadvantaged situation they could not win. So they have to program in miss chance and poor decision making.

[ToJKa]

Yeah, restarted at the crater investigation. Almost back there now.

I focused crew XP on the evasion skill (maxed out for everyone at the beginning of Courchevel) focused research on armor and structure damage reduction and giving out more commands to focus fire on high level threats. An Atlas or a Battlemaster needs to die now. A Cicada you can ignore, it'll die on it's own because it's useless at everything

Doing much better than firs time, didn't even lose components on Turtle Bay last mission.

Also, for whatever reason, i completely neglected the chassis upgrades last time. Doing them now as soon as all omnipod layouts are unlocked.

[Yaldabaoth]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von RebelRouser:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wrayday:

To be 100%

Put the game on easy and one and done it.
No custom character.
No NG+
God Awful interface with pointless submenu's.
No actual mission variety.
Terrible VA's.

There is no reason to suffer long missions looking for mud puddles to stand in while your AI teammates get smoked.
Simpods .... replay screw you over by forcing you to play stock and under tonnage so they are lame.

Oh god I haven't even touched Sim Pods once.

I have never used it and still won quite easily on normal. M Pulse Lasers.